‘Bird Rock Bandit’ arrested in battery case

One of the men who pleaded guilty in the infamous Bird Rock Bandit case involving the beating death of a La Jolla surfer was arrested on a battery charge over the weekend.

Eric House, part of a group known as the Bird Rock Bandits, is shown in January 2010 in San Diego Superior Court when he was sentenced to prison for violating terms of his probation in the killing of surfer Emery Kauanui, 24.

Nelvin C. Cepeda

Eric House, part of a group known as the Bird Rock Bandits, is shown in January 2010 in San Diego Superior Court when he was sentenced to prison for violating terms of his probation in the killing of surfer Emery Kauanui, 24.

Eric House, part of a group known as the Bird Rock Bandits, is shown in January 2010 in San Diego Superior Court when he was sentenced to prison for violating terms of his probation in the killing of surfer Emery Kauanui, 24. (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

Eric House, 25, was taken into custody shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday at his girlfriend’s Pacific Beach apartment on Chalcedony Street after an argument, San Diego police said.

House was booked into jail about 10:40 p.m. on one misdemeanor count of domestic battery and was initially held on $10,000 bail, according to the jail’s website.

The City Attorney’s Office said he posted bond and was released from jail Monday afternoon.

House was one of three members of the so-called Bird Rock Bandits who pleaded guilty four years ago in the 2007 death of Emery Kauanui. The 24-year-old surfer died in a hospital four days after being punched in the face in a fight with the men outside his mother’s La Jolla home.

Seth Cravens, who delivered the fatal blow and who was the only one who went to trial, was convicted in 2008 of second-degree murder in Kauanui’s death and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

In what San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn later referred to as “the break of a lifetime,” House, Yanke and Osuna accepted a plea deal that allowed them to avoid being tried for murder. Then, at sentencing, they were granted probation.

That was revoked in 2010 when the trio admitted they had violated probation by using marijuana and fraternizing with each other. Einhorn said at the time that the violations were very serious and he considered the men a danger to the community.

He told them they “blew it” and sentenced each to three years in prison.

House did not speak in court that day. Instead, he submitted a letter to the judge saying that he took probation very seriously but acknowledged he had not lived up to his promises.

House entered state prison on Feb 1, 2010, and was assigned to Centinela State Prison in Imperial County, where he was released on Jan. 9, 2011 and put on parole.

State law mandates that those convicted of certain crimes, including involuntary manslaughter, be eligible to have their sentences reduced by 50 percent, said Luis Patino, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman.

House also would have been credited with time served in jail, Patino said. His parole ended this year on Feb. 8.

The City Attorney’s Office has not yet received the police investigation of the latest battery case involving House. If charges are formally brought, he would appear in San Diego Superior Court on Aug. 6.